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News

Heartbreaking. Grandmother commits suicide due to bedroom tax.

210 replies

Darkesteyes · 11/05/2013 22:33

This is heart rending. She left a note before heading to the moterway.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bedroom-tax-victim-commits-suicide-1883600#.UY6lhlQGgMY.twitter

OP posts:

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edam · 12/05/2013 20:41

MrsSavlo - you are precisely wrong. Council housing has always been a secure tenancy. That was the point of it - a safe and sound and permanent roof over your head. After WW2, people said they weren't falling for the same old tricks played on the workers after WW1. They wanted a better country, one that treated ordinary people fairly - so, decent council housing, not the slums, not slum landlords ripping people off.

It is this government that has torn up the social contract. And governments of the last 34 years that have failed to build enough houses, for rent and for sale.

usualsuspect · 12/05/2013 20:43

Real people live in council houses,I think people forget that.

mumblechum1 · 12/05/2013 20:45

Maybe the answer, if there are so few 1 bedroomed properties, is to convert bigger properties so that a 3 bed semi becomes two one bed flats......

Somethingtothinkabout · 12/05/2013 20:49

Yes but if you want a secure tenancy, you need to own your own home, otherwise you are at the mercy of the owner (council, landlord, your partner etc).

It's a sad situation, but it's not the governments fault. She no longer needed a 3bed house, she prefered it I'm sure, and had a lot of memories there, but so does everyone else who suddenly has to move for reasons beyond their control.

edam · 12/05/2013 20:50

That would probably be more expensive than building new houses, tbh, and would leave the country short of three bedroom stock.

We need to build, or convert, more affordable houses of all types - social housing, private housing, for rent and for sale. But it's far easier for the government to bully the poor and the vulnerable than to take some effing responsibility for the failure of housing policy - by successive governments.

edam · 12/05/2013 20:52

Not everyone can buy their own home. She couldn't afford it, that's why she was in a council house in the first place.

Secure tenancies were available until the government just changed the rules. That's not her fault, it's the government's.

If the govt. gave a toss, they could do a lot to help by giving tenants in the private sector secure tenancies, rather than leaving people at the mercy of short-term lets.

flippinada · 12/05/2013 20:53

Lots of people will never own their own home; not because they are lazy, entitled, workshy but because they don't and will never earn enough.

These people deserve a secure home too. Hence council housing.

usualsuspect · 12/05/2013 20:54

Well not everyone can afford to buy their own homes.
I don't think this government give a toss about families who are struggling.

They bring in taxes like this to get votes from idiots who think CH tenants are to blame for everything.

williaminajetfighter · 12/05/2013 21:00

My father killed himself last year and at the end of his life it was hard for him to put things that happened to him in perspective.

I agree with what others are saying especially Janey. I had to move away from family and friends to get a new job and move to a new home. Thousands of people have to. People expecting to live in the same secure council home for their whole lives are living a fantasy when those in the 'private sector world' have no such thing.

Also can we please stop using the word 'bullying' or the phrase 'bullying the poor'? Bullying is the most overused phrase ever. When the govt Did a tax investigation - totally unwarranted - on my brothers business, was that bullying? Ditto when they wouldn't let me have access to council child are or took away my baby bonus. Was that bullying too. Honestly!

usualsuspect · 12/05/2013 21:02

It's not CH tenants fault that private let's are not secure.

ReluctantlyBeingYoniMassaged · 12/05/2013 21:09

No, it's not, but they have access to more realistic rents.

DelGirl · 12/05/2013 21:09

totally agree with phantom, whilst I feel sad that she was driven to end her life, it was not because of the bedroom tax, it was because of her mental state. She did have options and I feel it was totally selfish to have involved someone else. Her actions could have ended up killing many people and the poor lorry driver will never forget this

flippinada · 12/05/2013 21:12

william I am very sorry to hear about your father, losing a member of your family to suicide is a terrible thing.

You talk about moving out and moving away. But what about people who don't have that opportunity.

Seriously, how easy do people think it is for an adult in their 50s onward who perhaps hasn't worked for a number of years (caring for an elderly parent, raising children and then their spouse dies for example) or who has just been made redundant to get a job and get funds together..?

usualsuspect · 12/05/2013 21:12

And why shouldn't they?

Do only well off people deserve secure homes?

usualsuspect · 12/05/2013 21:14

This poor woman took her own life and posters are saying she deserved to lose her home?

Unfuckingbelievable

flippinada · 12/05/2013 21:15

I think it would be nice if we could not blame her family for not doing enough too.

How do we know they didn't? How do we know they hadn't tried x,y,z thing to help?

You cannot magic up money if it just isn't there or give more time and support than you are physically able.

usualsuspect · 12/05/2013 21:17

I hope her family don't ever read this thresd.

williaminajetfighter · 12/05/2013 21:23

Oh fGS sorry usual! im allowed my opinion. I personally really struggle with the idea that the state takes a paternal role for some of its people shielding them from the housing realities that others have faced. I hate that the state gets to pick and choose who gets 'looked after'. And I hate then that those given housing might be told they should deserve the same accommodation for the rest of their lives because its not realistic. Sorry that's my view. I am left wing but hate cradletograve nanny state and I'm allowed my opinion.

I don't want to hijack this post but going back to the original post but based on my experience no one kills themself for one particular incident. It's usually a build up of a number of things.

williaminajetfighter · 12/05/2013 21:25

I also think its incredibly crass for her family to go to the media on this. I hope they didn't get paid for their story.

usualsuspect · 12/05/2013 21:29

I think her family were right to highlight the way the bedroom tax affects people.

Viviennemary · 12/05/2013 21:50

Her actions could have caused the death of many people in a motorway pile up. There are a lot of people struggling in a lot worse financial circumstances than she was. People who had poor housing and no family. It is a tragedy. But this blame game is ridiculous.

Madamecastafiore · 12/05/2013 21:57

So who do you blame if your board paying kids move out and you have to down size as without their money you can't pay the mortgage yet there are no properties where you currently live that you can afford?

Who is at fault if you then kill yourself? The bank for not reducing your mortgage? Your kids for moving out or the state for not subsidising you right to live in a 3 bed house that you can't afford?

janey68 · 12/05/2013 22:00

I agree vivienne. And even though fortunately no one else was physically harmed, we can only imagine the mental suffering of the lorry driver.. imagine having someone literally step in front of your fast moving vehicle.

The bottom line is: this woman was given a choice between remaining as a single person in a 3 bedroom house and paying £20 a week towards it, or moving to a one bedroom house which was less convenient and didn't hold the same memories, but not having to pay. Frankly, I think the original recipients of the welfare state would be amazed at the idea of even having such a choice. The welfare state has become so far removed from its original purpose as to be unrecognisable. It's supposed to be a safety net, providing shelter, food etc - not a life long entitlement to live in a particular house or location regardless of whether you need that amount of space. I also feel for the other families living in that locality who are overcrowded and stressed because they've been stuck on a council waiting list for god knows how many years. I wonder if the same people who are blaming the govt for this woman's suicide would also blame the govt if a parent from one of those families killed themself?

mumblechum1 · 12/05/2013 22:03

I suggested upthread that 3 bed semis could be converted to two X 1 bed flats. It wouldn't cost anywhere near as much as building brand new 1 beds, most of the cost is the land, it would just be a matter of putting an extra bathroom and kitchen in and physically separating the two homes within 1 building.

usualsuspect · 12/05/2013 22:05

This thread is bloody awful

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